Learn to understand and speak English like native speakers, and impress your friends with some REAL English words and phrases! Just remember that slang is CASUAL English! Use slang with your friends and people you know well! Don’t use slang with your boss, with the police if you get arrested or when meeting your girlfriend or boyfriend’s parents for the first time!

Let’s continue with the letter E!

Egghead
Egghead is slang for smart person. Anyone who knows a lot and studies a lot can be considered to be an egghead.
I was a real egghead in college. I always stayed in the library and never went on any dates.

Eye Candy
Eye candy refers to something that is visually attractive and grabs lots of attention. Flashy lights and women in sexy dresses are called eye candy because, like real candy, you enjoy looking at them for the moment but probably shouldn’t enjoy them for very long. Eye candy is often sexually arousing and is designed to have addictive appeal.
The 80-year-old billionaire had a nice piece of 24-year-old eye candy on his arm at the party.

Earful/Eyeful
To get an earful or an eyeful of something means to hear a lot or see a lot of it for a long time. If your mom yells at you for crashing her car, you get an earful of her screaming. If your grandmother’s swimsuit falls off on the beach while you’re talking with her, you get an eyeful.
I got an earful from my boss at work when I lost a big client.

Elbow Grease
Elbow grease is manual labor, or work you must physically do. When English speakers say that something just needs a bit of elbow grease, this means that some hard work is required to make it run smoothly.
This old car looks bad, but with a little elbow grease, it’ll be running like new!

Expat
Expat is short for expatriate, and refers to someone who is living in a foreign country. If you’re studying English in America and you’re from Brazil, then you’re an expat!
I’m an American expat living in Nepal!

Ex
Ex means previous or old. The woman I used to date is my ex-girlfriend, and someone who used to play baseball can be called an ex-baseball player. The term ex by itself usually refers to an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend.
I had to go over to my ex’s house yesterday to pick up my old clothes.

Easy Street
Easy street means being in luck or having things come really easy for you. If you live in paradise and never have to work, you’re living on easy street.
I was living on easy street after winning the lottery!

Eating
When English speakers say that something is eating them, this means that something is bothering or angering them. If someone looks angry or grumpy, we often ask, “What’s eating you?”
What’s eating me?! I bought these cheap balloons that pop when I blow them up!

Empty Nester
When all of the children in a family finally leave a family home to start their own lives, we say that children have left the nest. Parents who remain in the home after their children have all moved out of the home are considered empty nesters. Remember that if you see the suffix –er on the end of a word, that usually means it’s a person or a machine. A teacher is someone who teaches.
After my younger sister went away to college, my parents became empty nesters.

Exec
Exec is short for executive. This informal title is often used by workers in a company when talking about people higher up in an organization, but anyone can use it to describe executives in any organization.
I’m going golfing with a few execs from our partner company.

Eyeball
To eyeball something means to stare at it or examine it very closely. Usually, we eyeball people that make us mad or upset. You don’t eyeball someone you love unless they eat the last piece of chocolate cake.
Don’t eyeball people unless you’re looking for a fight!

Now get out and practice these words in your conversations! Challenge yourself to see how many of these cool words you can fit in one sentence in the comments section below. Have a great day and we’ll see you next time with some more great slang words starting with the letter F!